As Finland’s World Ranked No1 Sari Multala sailed to victory at the Europe Olympic women’s singlehander World Championship in Vilamoura, Portugal the girls of RYA/Team GBR had a reminder of just how long and hard the road will be if they are to follow up the gold medal success of Shirley Robertson.

There were occasional glimpses of promise today as Sarah Ayton (Weymouth) sailed to a 15th place, gaining places on the second beat and then taking a sixth place which should have guaranteed her a place in the overall top 20, and Debbie Winstanley showed signs of potential and rounded the first windward mark in sixth in the final race but fell back to finish in the mid 20s.

“This will have been a make or break regatta for some of the girls but we need to re-assess when we get back to the UK and set to work for the next Europeans and worlds. We need to develop and look at every area and make improvements. There have been some promising results, and as long as Sarah Ayton has made the top 20 then we can take some hope from that, but we have a long way to go.” Commented Mark Barron, RYA/Team GBR’s Olympic Europe class coach.

Results

Race 9

1st S. Multala (FIN)

2nd L. Smidova (CZE)

3rd D. Dwetzel (GER)

4th S Livbjerg (DEN)

5th C. Brouwer (NED)

Overall Results

1st Multala

2nd Brouwer